Friday, July 2, 2010

The Mets have viable ROY candidates


Going into the 2010 season, a lot of noise was made about the emergance of the Braves’ Jason Heyward, and the noise was well deserving. Heyward has proven himself to be ready for the majors for the most part and had a very impressive start to his major league career. After just the first week or two of the season, many figured he’d be a shoo-in for the National League 2010 Rookie of the Year.

Heyward had a rather rough June though, and since has wound up on the disabled list. This has opened up the field a bit more.

Of course, many people feel that the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg is the hot choice for that honor, but despite looking amazing since he’s come up, he still only has 2 wins, and is likely to only make anywhere from 11 to 12 more starts, meaning the odds of winning more than like 10 games isn’t very good. If he goes 11-1 with an ERA around 1.29 well I think it’ll be hard to ignore him, but if he goes say 8-3 with a 2.79 ERA for the season he’ll get some votes but not enough to win.

So where does that leave the NL group? Well, The Marlins’ Gaby Sanchez and The Cardinals’ Jamie Garcia are both excellent candidates, but the Mets have two players in Ike Davis and Jon Niese that will get some looks and if they continue to play at the level they are playing, and could start to gain some steam in the discussion.

First off, let’s take a look at the numbers for Davis and Heyward (who many considered a no-brainer for ROY honors). These numbers were as of Wednesday:

Heyward:
71 GAMES – 255 AT BATS – 41 RUNS – 64 HITS – 13 DOUBLES – 3 TRIPLES – 11 HOME RUNS – 45 RBI – 5 STOLEN BASES – 68 STRIKE OUTS – . 251 BATTING AVERAGE

Davis:
65 GAMES - 238 AT BATS - 37 RUNS – 62 HITS – 14 DOUBLES - 0 TRIPLES - 9 HOME RUNS - 34 RBI - 1 STOLEN BASES – 64 STRIKE OUTS – . 261 BATTING AVERAGE


Pretty simular numbers there. In fact, they’re almost exactly the same when you factor in the 13 odd at bat difference.

Niese is just as strong as someone like Jamie Garcia. Compare these stats:

Garcia:
7 WINS, 4 LOSSES, 2.27 ERA, 87.1 INNINGS PITCHED, 37 WALKS, 70 STRIKE OUTS, 1.260 WHIP, 0 COMPLETE GAMES


Niese:
5 WINS, 2 LOSSES, 3.84 ERA, 75.0 INNINGS PITCHED, 27 WALKS, 57 STRIKE OUTS, 1.453 WHIP, 1 COMPLETE GAME


Garcia has better stats, but Niese is close enough that depending on the 2nd half of the season those numbers can become better than Garcias.

The Mets season has been a pleasant surprise for many and a lot of people credit Davis for playing a huge part. He stabilzed the infield defense, has become the teams clean-up hitter, has made the needed adjustments as the season has gone on and has shown a tremendous amount of maturity. Niese has helped create a Mets’ starting rotation, that was considered a total mess, that is a major strength. Both have made some noise and both figure to have a shot in where the ROY vote goes at the end of the season.

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